Holy smokes!

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published
7:00 pm EST, Thursday, March 3, 2005

And not in church, either, but in the theater at Dodger Stages in New York City.

That's where the fresh and sassy "Altar Boyz," a hit at the 2004 New York Musical Theatre Festival, just opened and where I suspect it will remain - if not until the second coming, at least for a damned (pardon me, Father) long time.

This is a witty take on youth's current infatuation with religion and its recruitment programs that utilize pop music. The "boyz" are a quintet of performers in a Christian boy-band who have arrived in Manhattan with soul-saving on their agenda.

That's the thinnest of premises for a 90-minute concert of non-stop songs, laughs and dazzling hip-hop dancing.

If the boy-toys remind you of 'N Sync and the Back Street Boys, it's probably because the five nimble actors have been hand-picked to appeal to a wide range of potential admirers, girls and gays especially.

Don't turn up your nose at its lighthearted comedy-at-the-expense-of-religion or its hip-hop sound, if so you'll be missing an entertaining show with an irresistible, true innocence.

There's a running joke about the group's soul-sensitive machine, the DX12, which registers the number of lost souls in its presence. The starting number, flashed in red lights, just happens to coincide with the number of people in the audience, plus the four-piece back-up band and the boys.

As they plead for conversions to the faith using their songs as persuasion, the number goes down until it bottoms out with just one lost soul in the theater.

Who that is, and why, is another clever twist in this otherwise plotless musical. The book by Kevin Del Aguila is billed as an "immaculate" conception.

The slightly irreverent but always peppy songs by Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker include "The Calling" ("Jesus Called Me on My Cell Phone - no roaming charges were incurred"), "Get the Hell Out!," an attack on the devil in anti-Dracula style (crucifixes at the ready), and a surprised-party-animal question about how water gets changed to wine called "Christ! How Did He Do That?"

Three of the five characters have names from the Bible - Matthew, Mark and Luke. They're joined in a display of inclusionism by Juan and Abraham.

Mark is clearly gay, and the live-and-let-live attitude the show's creators espouse suggests that Noah would have invited two gays to join his couples-only cruise on the Ark.

Mark (Scott Porter) is a straight eight, with a cleft chin and a gym rat's body, and clearly the lover boy of the group. Like the other four, he has his moment in the spotlight and will get the women in the audience flustered with his confession of temptation during a weekend at a sleep-away Bible camp.

The girl of his dream appears, causing him tight jeans, among other discomforts, but his will power prevails as he sings "Girl, You Wanna Make Me Wait." Yeah, sure.

Mark (Tyler Maynard) is a blond cutie with an impish air who is obviously smitten with Mark. He has the show's best number, "Epiphany," describing an unhappy childhood in which he realizes he is different from the other boys.

Just when we're expecting him to "out" himself as gay, he turns the tables on us with a hilarious switch that brings down the house.

Luke (Andy Karl) is truly a boy from the 'hood, with his baseball cap askew, and elastic arms and legs that propel him through hip-hop maneuvers that defy gravity. He makes one-arm gyrations look as easy as fly-flicking.

"God put the rhythm in me so I could bust a move," he sings.

As the fiery-eyed Juan, the Latino member of the group, Ryan Duncan is sexy and hilarious, sometimes at the same time.

He takes the lead in "La Vida Eternal," which starts out like a dirge (Juan finally locates the graves of his long-lost parents), turns into a tornado of passion (and funny and intentionally overdone ballet), and finally explodes into a breathless finish. Ole!

Though he sings and dances as well as his partners, David Josefsberg, who plays Abraham, must count as the comic. When he shows up to audition for the group, one of the other four asks, "Do we let Jews in our church?" To which Abraham replies, "I think I just saw one on a crucifix in the vestibule!"

The four-piece on-stage band led by Lynne Shankel plays with a fever appropriate for souls undergoing moral metamorphosis, and choreographer Christopher Gattelli deserves some sort of physics award for his dazzling array of bodily motions.

Director Stafford Arima must have had fun with this show. It's no masterpiece by any means, but one of the best-natured, smile-provoking entertainments of the season.

And if you're curious to know how God sounds (if he hasn't already called you), the deep tones of Shadoe Stevens, who was once the host of radio's "Top 40" and the off-camera voice of television's "Hollywood Squares," gets the go here.

You're gonna obey when he issues this edict from on high: "Hitherto shalt thou annoint thy hair with product."

"Altar Boyz" is playing at Dodger Stages, 340 W. 50th St., New York City, with performances Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 7, and matinees Saturdays at 2 and Sundays at 3. Tickets are $66 weeknights and Sunday night, $69 for Fridays and matinees; call Telecharge at (212) 239-6200 or purchase them online at www.telecharge.com.